I’ve been asked recently why I’ve not been blogging lately.

Part of the reason could be I’ve been a slacker.

But the primary reason is I’ve had a problem posting with our software.

I’ve also had difficulty getting the problem fixed with our interactive support folks.

One of their suggestions was going through another software because, well, they were too busy.

That irritated me, so I declined to try that method. I, too, am busy, I reasoned, and that answer just wasn’t good enough.

Then in the last day or so, Joanne Persinger, our community editor, noticed that my blog was coming up with her blog when she posted.

Ha, I thought, I’ll just log on through Joanne’s computer and see what happens. Yep, it worked. I could write to Dan’s Blog through Joanne’s Sideroads. To heck with downloading some other software and going into my blog as recommended.

So I started blooging again in earnest Wednesday. This is my third post today.

But if you closely at what I wrote Wednesday and the first two today, you’ll see that it appears Joanne is posting on my blog. That’s the case. Those posts really were from me.

So, I swallowed my pride and did as was recommended. I downloaded the other software, launched it and logged in, under my name. Or at least I hope so.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Did you Monday’s story online at TribTown and in the paper about our staff winning five awards Saturday at the Indiana Associated Press Managing Editors awards program?

TribTown won a first place in our division as the best Web site in the state.

We’re pretty excited about it, although such things don’t put new shoes on the girls’ feet, a tank of gas in the car or even a steak on the grill.

But it is satisfying, knowing that the hard word we put into the Web are being recognized by our peers.

We already knew we must be doing something right, based on the number of hits — growing hits — that TribTown.com receives. We see that in the number of unique visitors, the number of times viewers come back and how sticky they are to our site — that is the how long they stay and how deep into the Web site they go.

We also knew that by the number of hits we get on our photo galleries and videos of local events and people.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Our program at Freedom School on Tuesday focused on a range of topics.

They included a look at how Freedom newspapers and Web sites embrace our libertarian foundation in our editorials and discussions of illigal immigration, whether freedom is on the march or in retreat, church and state in a free country and how our properties engage in libertarianism and community service.

Tom Palmer of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, reviewed his observations after reading editorials from our newspapers.

He saw evidence that we support the idea of freedom for all, that we believe in the rule of law, that should be economy in government — that it should be limited — and that government should be closely watched.

He noted that our editorials hold public officials accountable for their actions, and inaction, that rule of law should apply to everyone, that we should know the rules of law ahead of time, that laws shouldn’t favor one group over another and that government shouldn’t rob Peter to pay Pail.

We try to practice those principals on our editorial page in The Tribune and Opinion section online at TribTown.com.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.